Author: Lacey Rose, Marisa Guthrie

August 13, 2015 11:31am PT by Lacey Rose, Marisa Guthrie

Bob Greenblatt  NBC

Bob Greenblatt and Jennifer Salke also talked about the ‘Aquarius’ binge experiment and plans for more faith-based fare during their stop at TCA.

Bob Greenblatt wrapped up press tour with a mix of snark and candor.

“You’ll be glad to know I threw out my 15 minute power point about how challenged our business is,” the NBC Entertainment chairman said from stage at the Television Critics Association Thursday, adding: “I think you guys know all of the headlines. I thought I’d give you my 15-second version: Too many shows, not enough monetization, fractured audience, Netflix didn’t report ratings, what did Nielsen do this time, and how do we find the next big comedy.”

The suite of familiar headlines drew laughs in the Beverly Hilton ballroom, and set the stage for an entertaining half hour in which Greenblatt and his entertainment president Jennifer Salke fielded several questions about former Celebrity Apprentice host Donald Trump (and no, he’s “absolutely not” returning to the NBC franchise) along with the network’s rough comedy spell, the Aquarius binge experiment and decision to reboot the 1990s comedy Coach. Of the latter, which one reporter suggested sounded a bit like a practical joke when the revival news was first announced, Greenblatt deadpanned: “One man’s practical joke is another man’s hit show.”

Here are the other highlights from Greenblatt and Salke’s morning with the press.

The Aquarius Experiment

The Aquarius experiment was precisely that: an experiment. “We’re the most traditional kind of network, and we’re always looking for ways to become less traditional,” Greenblatt noted from stage, adding that it’s critical for someone in his position to always be adapting and evolving as his audience does. He said he was pleased to see that the non-linear strategy drew a younger audience (median age: 35) to the series’ online version, which made up six percent of the series’ viewership. Also promising: internal research conducted around the experiment suggested that “people automatically thought better of the network” when it offered the binge option to its audience. Post panel, he told reporters that he likely wouldn’t release all episodes of the David Duchovny series’ second season at once, but he’s open to following the same model on other projects. As for the surprise renewal given the series’ meager linear ratings, Greenblatt said he would never “apologize for renewing a show that I think is creatively superb.”

Comedy: No Laughing Matter

Greenblatt didn’t shy away from his network’s growing comedy problem, which has gotten outsized attention since NBC was once home to must-see-TV comedies like Friends and Seinfeld. At the same time, he stressed how important it was to be smart about the bets the network makes, reiterating that moving Universal TV’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, for instance, was a shrewd once since it had a significantly better chance of survival at Netflix. Which is not to say he wouldn’t have loved the kind of awards attention the series received over at NBC, joking: “We’re whores for Emmy nominations just like everyone else.” Playing to the room, he used his TCA platform to announce new comedy pilots from Tina Fey, Robert Carlock and Parks & Recreation’s Mike Schur and plug to plug a live season of Undateable. 

Trump: “The World Likes a Star”

Greenblatt was well prepared for the deluge of questions about Trump, and even seemed to mount a charm offensive just weeks after his network decided to ditch Trump’s Miss USA Pageant in the wake of Trump’s derogatory comments about Mexican immigrants. “He’s a lovely guy,” said the NBC chief, who noted that the GOP presidential aspirant was “very much of a collaborator” during production of Celebrity Apprentice, adding: “We weren’t in any adversarial position.” Except for the Miss USA imbroglio, of course, which is currently in the hands of lawyers. But Greenblatt asserted that the “controversies” swirling around Trump were his own “personal controversies” and did not affect his working relationship with NBC: “It was a congenial, really great relationship.” It almost sounded like Greenblatt was leaving that door open for a Trump return – if he fails to advance to the White House, of course. And in the meantime, perhaps some appearances on NBC’ late night shows. As for his thoughts on why Trump is striking a chord, Greenblatt pointed to his “unfiltered,” tell-it-like-it-is strategy that many find “refreshing.” Plus, he said: “The world likes a star and [Trump is] a star.”

Live, Live, Live

“I’m a live junkie,” said Greenblatt, who stressed the power of the genre the way so many other executives have during the two-and-a-week press tour. But he’s continuing to put his money where his mouth is, banking on more live productions (he said post-panel that he’s quietly acquired rights to more musicals and is still at work on a production of A Few Good Men), a mostly-live variety-style show from Neil Patrick Harris and a live comedy with Undateable. Next, he said he’d like to try a live drama, though he acknowledged he needs to find producers who are willing to tackle the high-wire act that that would entail. 

About the Reboot Frenzy

The NBC chiefs insisted they aren’t jumping on the reboot bandwagon just to jump on the reboot bandwagon. That said, they have several coming. In defense of Heroes Reborn, creator Tim Kring came to them with both a desire and vision — not the other way around. Same was true of the planned Coach reboot, which was an idea hatched by star Craig T. Nelson and creator Barry Kemp. With Heroes, Greenblatt reiterated the ongoing response to that show, which made a revival particularly appealing. He added that the plan for now simply was to do a truncated 13, an order size he and Kring believe would have better served the drama from the outset. As for Coach, he and Salke see it as an opportunity to do another variation on a family show with a big star, a proven showrunner and, yes, a pre-sold title. Greenblatt quipped, “And if that works, Alf: The Series is next.”

Faith Remains A Focus

Worry not, there will be more faith-based programming on the horizon at the network. Though Salke and Greenblatt both acknowledged A.D. The Bible didn’t generate the ratings they were hoping for, NBC’s relationship with producers Mark Burnett and wife Roma Downey would continue with other faith-based projects already in the works. “Roma and Mark have an unparalleled connection with that community,” said Salke, with Greenblatt adding that NBC’s upcoming Dolly Parton movie A Coat of Many Colors also is grounded in spirituality. “Our attention is on that,” he said. “I think the audience is starved for it.”

Television Critics Association

Marisa Guthrie

THRnews@thr.com

E!

‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians’

NBCUniversal has finalized a new deal with the Kardashians that will keep the clan on E! for the foreseeable future. 

But the new deal, a three-year extension for the Keeping Up With the Kardashian franchise, is not the “big ass” $100 million deal that the New York Post reported. “The story is grossly inaccurate,” said an NBCUniversal spokesperson, who declined to provide additional details.

The multiyear deal does not include patriarch Bruce Jenner, who will exit Keeping Up after the upcoming 10th season. He’s been in talks for his own show on E!, which would explore his much-ballyhooed sex transition. According to one insider, the show would begin post-transition, which he’s expected to discuss in a sit-down with former ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer. 

Though ratings for the Kardashians’ collection of shows have slid as the franchise has aged and the landscape has continued to fracture, the family is nonetheless a critical piece of branding for the pop culture network, which has yet to identify a true heir apparent. From a promotional standpoint, the family collectively has 80 million followers on Twitter alone and has been able to snag magazine covers — from Vogue to US Weekly — and media stories in a way few others can. 

Kim Kardashian’s relationship with husband Kanye West has been a boon for the Ryan Seacrest Productions franchise, though sources say West is not part of the family’s new mega-deal. The two-part ninth-season finale in September – which featured never-before-seen footage leading up to their wedding – delivered the show’s most-watched episode in more than a year, with a cumulative 5.8 million viewers tuning in to both episodes, which marked a 10 percent increase over the season-nine opener.

NBC

Bob Greenblatt, Jennifer Salke and Paul Telegdy

Bob Greenblatt was on hand Sunday for his much-deserved victory lap.

Having just wrapped the television season atop his rivals in the all-important 18-49 demo for the first time in a decade — thanks to a schedule that includes The Voice, The Blacklist and Sunday Night Football — the network chairman trotted out on stage at the Television Critics Association press tour with renewed energy. Flashing on screens that flanked the Beverly Hilton stage were bold declarations including “NBC’s resurgence is just beginning” as clips from the network’s portfolio accompanied them.

PHOTOS Broadcast TV’s New 2014-15 Shows

Before facing a deluge of questions, Greenblatt stood at the podium to rattle off a string of impressive statistics, including 27 percent growth in total viewers, an additional $300 million in upfront gains and big wins in late night, where Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show regularly trounces its rivals. Though NBC won’t have an Olympics assist this coming season, NBC is poised to benefit significantly from the Super Bowl ratings boost in February.

Joined by his entertainment president Jennifer Salke and reality chief Paul Telegdy, the trio fielded questions about broadcast’s challenges, the controversy still swirling around a banned Obvious Child ad and Community’s move to Yahoo .

Hey Bob, Fox could use your advice.

With Fox expected to announce its new chief — or more likely, chiefs– as early as this week, Greenblatt was asked to offer advice for turning around a ratings-challenged network as he’s done over the past three and a half years at NBC. He had a few pieces of wisdom to share. “You have to love the medium,” he noted first, adding: “If you don’t really want to be in the broadcast medium, you shouldn’t be. Also key: an appetite and an ability to be in the volume business as the job requires producing some 20 shows at any given time; hiring good people not only to work on your programs but also to work in your executive ranks; and having the kind of management that offers support and latitude in the way Greenblatt insists NBCU CEO Steve Burke does.

Just how pissed were you on Emmy morning?

Greenblatt was not shy about his frustrations surrounding cable’s continued domination come Emmy time, using the TCA platform to express his dismay about the lack of love for The Blacklist, and its star James Spader. “Despite of the fact that we tell ourselves it doesn’t matter, we of course want that validation,” he says, adding: “cable has the advantages doing shows that are darker, more interesting and to some extant feels cooler than what we can do.” The latter gave way to a larger conversation about the challenges a network like NBC has when it comes to producing cable-worthy fare as it does with critically-beloved Hannibal. Put simply: not enough viewers come. “Hannibal is one of the best shows we have creatively. … I don’t know why 5 million or 8 million wont watch Hannibal on a broadcast network,” he continued, noting that that “minute you try to do something that is dark and subversive you start to peel away the mass audience.”

Tell us what really happened with that Obvious Child ad.

With the controversy over NBC’s rejection of a digital ad for the film Obvious Child with the word “abortion” in it is still reverberating thanks to a Planned Parenthood petition signed by female pop culture celebrities including Lena Dunham and DJ Samantha Ronson, Greenblatt suggested the network does not have an “iron clad policy” about the word itself. That said, he acknowledged that he was not part of the internal discussion about the ad, which was among three ads submitted to the digital sales team. Clarifying, he added from the stage: “The sales group chose the path of least resistance. They chose the ad that did not have [the word abortion in] it.”

So, how does that translate to programming?

While the entertainment industry had made progress in dealing with a perennially divisive issue – NBC’s Friday Night Lights and Parenthood have both dealt with abortion — Greenblatt says it’s still a topic that draws controversy. “I don’t know that its been off limits but I think it’s one of those hot-button issues that people are still afraid of for obvious reasons,” he said. He went on to recount a struggle he was involved with while an executive at Fox when writer’s of the network’s popular 1990’s drama Party of Five came up with a storyline that had Neve Campbell’s character deciding to have an abortion. “At the time of the Fox network it was a real fight internally whether or not we could tell that story and she lost the baby sort of on the way to get the abortion,” Greenblatt continued, putting air quotes around the word lost. “I thought [that was] a real cop out. And that was 20 years ago. I don’t think we cop out like that anymore. But I still think writers and producers are nervous about it because it really does divide people.”

Dan Harmon’s getting the last laugh, huh? 

Speaking with reporters after his session, Greenblatt suggest he, too, was happy to see Harmon’s ratings-challenged cult hit Community land on Yahoo since NBC’s studio is a co-owner with Sony on the studio. “Yahoo is in a different business than we are, trying to build their platform, and they made an extraordinary deal. We’re the co-owners of that show and we’re going to make money on it right away, which wouldn’t have been the case if it had been on the network for another year,” he said, noting that he feels “great” about his decision not to keep the ratings-challenged series on his network.  “It just didn’t make sense for us to have another season of it at that level of audience. I don’t know if we’ll ever know how many people watch it on Yahoo, I’m curious to see if they can get a bigger audience than we did.”

How nervous are you about the CBS’ Thursday night football play?

NBC’s producers and stars may be concerned that CBS’ big Thursday Night Football play will crush the peacock net’s lineup this fall, but Greenblatt suggests he’s not. Or at least he sees a silver lining in the move: his comedies won’t have to come out of the gate competing against CBS’ comedy behemoths like The Big Bang Theory. “I think it gives us a little opening for those comedies [Bad Judge and A to Z], which has been really challenging in the past,” he said of his new entrants, acknowledging the challenges NBC’s Thursday night comedy efforts including The Michael J. Fox Show and Sean Saves the World have faced of late. What’s more, he doesn’t expect CBS’ Thursday night games to immediately rival the juggernaut status of his net’s Sunday Night Football. “I’m hoping that those Thursday games are going to take a long time to take root,” he added. “We know football is potent, but I don’t think you’re going to see the kind of ratings that we see on Sunday night.”  

Guess it’s not all bad news for NBC’s comedy department.

CBS’ next-morning report had Extant proving this summer’s biggest scripted bow, but Greenblatt revealed that the network spoke to soon. Once the official numbers came in later in the week, Extant fell slightly, putting it on par with NBC’s surprise –and recently renewed– breakout The Night Shift. And unlike the heavily touted Halle Berry vehicle, Night Shift lacked big stars or a hefty promotional campaign. Its ability to connect with audiences has been reassuring to Greenblatt, who admits broadcast nets used to throw on lesser fare during the summer months. No longer. In fact, he and Salke suggested that the network’s Bill Cosby sitcom could find itself landing on NBC’s late summer schedule in 2015.

But that’s not to say NBC has comedy all figured out.

Salke called the demise of The Michael J. Fox Show and Sean Saves the World “heartbreaking,” with Greenblatt noting that he had hoped that the series’ stars — Fox and Sean Hayes, respectively — would have helped the network cut through on a particularly challenged night (Thursdays) for NBC. That neither did is a revealing, if frustrating, commentary on the state of the competitive marketplace. Looking ahead, NBC is making a bet that audiences are eager for romantic comedies, a genre that hasn’t had a heavy presence on network schedules of late, with freshman efforts including A to Z and Marry Me. Both execs added they the network will continue to try to lure producers back to the broader, cheaper and considerably less sexy multicamera comedy genre, too.